A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of a disk drive apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a disk drive apparatus wherein unloading (ejection) of a disk cartridge and loading (landing) and/or unloading (takeoff) onto and/or from a disk-shaped recording medium can be performed by a single driving source and movement of the head onto and from (head landing, takeoff) the disk-shaped recording medium are performed at a low speed.
B. Related Art
Conventionally, the operation of ejecting a disk cartridge in which a disk-shaped recording medium, for example, a floppy disk, is accommodated from a cartridge loading condition to a cartridge unloading condition and the operations of loading and unloading a head onto and/or from the disk-shaped recording medium are performed independent of each other. Therefore, respective drive mechanisms (i.e., ejection mechanism, head lifting mechanism) which are independent of each other are provided and the drive mechanisms are individually operated by drive sources different from each other.
However, in such a conventional disk drive apparatus as described above, since the ejection operation and the head lifting mechanism are operated by driving sources different from each other, the size and the weight of the disk drive disadvantageously increases as well as the number of components increases in the disk drive apparatus.
Further, since conventionally the recording capacity of a floppy disk is approximately 1 MB or 2 MB and the magnetic layer of the disk is comparatively thick, the disk is strengthened against head crash and the disk is less liable to be damaged upon head loading (landing) and/or head unloading (takeoff). However, a floppy disk of a high density developed by the inventor of the present invention (the floppy disk is hereinafter described) has a problem also in that, since the magnetic layer is a thin film, if a conventional disk drive apparatus is used, the floppy disk can be damaged upon head landing and/or takeoff.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a disk drive apparatus which avoids the aforementioned deficiencies of the prior art.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a disk drive apparatus wherein the ejection operation of the disk cartridge and the head lifting mechanism are driven by the same driving source.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a disk drive apparatus which is miniaturized in size, reduced in weight and reduced in its number of parts.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a disk drive apparatus for a high density disk-shaped recording medium which reduces the chance of damage to the disk upon head landing and/or takeoff.
Various other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become readily apparent from the ensuing detailed description and the novel features will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
Thus, in order to achieve the objects described above, a disk drive apparatus according to the present invention has been designed which comprises a cartridge holder for holding a disk cartridge in which a disk-shaped recording medium is accommodated, the cartridge holder being supported for movement in upward and downward directions with respect to a chassis for moving the disk cartridge between a cartridge loading position and a cartridge unloading position, a slider supported for movement in forward and backward directions with respect to the chassis for moving the cartridge holder in the upward and downward directions biasing means for biasing the slider to move the cartridge holder to an eject position, a head supported on a carriage by a head arm and moved to a head landing position at which recording/reproduction onto from the disk-shaped recording medium in the loading condition of the disk cartridge, a head lifting mechanism for acting upon the head arm in the loading condition of the disk cartridge to move the head from a head loading position at which recording/reproduction of data onto/from the disk-shaped recording medium is possible to a head unloading position at which recording/reproduction of data is impossible with the head lifting mechanism being spaced away from the head arm to allow the head to move from the head unloading position to the head loading position, a locking member for locking a positional relationship between the slider and the cartridge holder in the cartridge loading condition of the cartridge holder and unlocking the positional relationship in response to forward or backward movement of the slider, and driving means rotatable to move the slider forwardly or backwardly to unlock the locking member and including an outputting section which moves at a low speed and when the driving member is rotated in a direction opposite to the direction in which the driving means acts upon the slider, the outputting section acts upon the head lifting mechanism to perform head loading.
Accordingly, with the disk drive apparatus of the present invention, unloading (ejection) of the disk cartridge and loading (landing) and/or unloading (takeoff) of the head onto/from a disk-shaped recording medium can be performed by a single driving source. Accordingly, by miniaturization and reduction in weight of the drive apparatus as well as reduction of the number of parts of the drive apparatus can be achieved. Further, since the outputting section of the driving member is moved at a low speed and head loading is performed by the head lifting mechanism, so-called xe2x80x9csoft landingxe2x80x9d of the head onto the disk can be realized. Consequently, damage to the disk upon head landing can be reduced.
Meanwhile, a disk drive apparatus according to another aspect of the present invention has been designed which includes a head supported on a carriage by a head arm which is movable to a head loading position wherein recording/reproduction onto/from a disk-shaped recording medium is possible in a loading condition of a disk cartridge, a head lifting mechanism for acting upon the head arm in the loading condition of the disk cartridge to move the head from a head loading position at which recording/reproduction of data onto/from the disk-shaped recording medium is possible to a head unloading position at which recording/reproduction of data is impossible and the head lifting mechanism being spaced away from the head arm to allow the head to move from the head unloading position to the head loading position, a biasing member for biasing the head lifting mechanism in a direction in which the head lifting mechanism acts upon the head arm, and a head retention mechanism for holding the head arm in a condition wherein a biasing force of the biasing member does not act upon the head lifting mechanism, and that, when the head retention mechanism is disengaged from the head arm, the head lifting mechanism acts upon the head arm while decreasing the biasing force of the biasing member to perform head unloading.
Accordingly, with the disk drive apparatus of the present invention, while the biasing force by the biasing member in the unloading direction of the head from the disk is attenuated, so-called xe2x80x9csoft takeoffxe2x80x9d of the head from the disk can be realized. Consequently, damage to the disk upon takeoff can be reduced.